Video Game Voice Actors Might Join Strike Against AI

Video game voice actors could soon join the strike against AI usage in the entertainment industry.

The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) recently announced that it is extending a strike authorization vote to its members ahead of an upcoming negotiation.

The strike authorization includes video game voice actors for various video game developers.

Fighting Back Against Generative AI

Members of the SAG-AFTRA's National Board unanimously voted to send a strike authorization vote to its members on Sept. 1 in preparation for the union's upcoming bargaining dates with signatory video game companies, per its latest announcement.

These signatory video game companies include the following:

• Activision Productions Inc.,
• Blindlight LLC,
• Disney Character Voices Inc.,
• Electronic Arts Productions Inc.,
• Epic Games, Inc.,
• Formosa Interactive LLC,
• Insomniac Games Inc.,
• Take 2 Productions Inc.,
• VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and
• WB Games Inc.

The union's announcement said the extension of the Interactive Media Agreement didn't result in promising negotiations to have the companies involved address the "critical terms" its members in the video game industry need. According to a report from Gamespot, these critical terms include the same rate increases as film and TV actors, job protection from AI, and a mandatory five-minute-per-hour rest period for on-camera performance capture actors.

As a result, SAG-AFTRA's negotiating committee and the National Board unanimously agreed that the union should have a member-approved strike authorization when negotiations resume on Sept. 26.

For those unaware, the Interactive Media Agreement is the video game contract SAG-AFTRA negotiated that covers interactive or video game programs where the viewer or user can manipulate, affect, or even alter the sequence or presentation of the program on a real-time basis.

The agreement was born in 2017, when SAG-AFTRA and the video game industry reached an agreement that ended the nearly year-long strike by the union against video game producers, developers, and publishers, per Variety. The agreement provides performers in the video game industry with a bonus structure that provides additional payments to them based on the number of sessions worked.

However, the agreement didn't cover the use of artificial intelligence in the production of video games as it wasn't an issue back then. As such, SAG-AFTRA is now trying to include it in the negotiations to rectify its exclusion.

Why Video Game Actors Couldn't Join In The Strike Before?

SAG-AFTRA members in the video game industry previously voiced their opposition to artificial intelligence in mid-August, per the Los Angeles Times. However, video game voice actors don't fall in the same agreement as the performers currently on strike, preventing them from joining unless the union authorizes them.

Interestingly, because of the different agreements involved, actors on strike can still do voice work for video games.

Regardless, the strike authorization vote SAG-AFTRA gave its members in the video game industry means that a strike will most likely happen if negotiations aren't fruitful for the union. A strike at this time could delay any games requiring voice actors currently in development, per Insider Gaming.